What Bush Said about Energy Crisis, What Time Said About Bush

Think back seven years to when President Bush delivered the same message that Americans are now demanding of Congress: "Drill, Drill, Drill"?

He was ridiculed and called a greedy oilman by the same cheerleaders that run interference for Barack Obama and congressional Democrats now: the mainstream press.

Red Planet Cartoons has done an invaluable service, both in producing the cartoon above AND reproducing the quote below from a 2001 Time article on energy policy.

In May, convinced the nation was terrified of going California and hungering for a steak-and-eggs energy plan, Bush sold his plan as an aggressive drill-and-dig, anti-regulatory prescription to shoo away the tree-huggers and get the nation — and the economy — humming again.

Two months later, a New York Times/CBS poll released last week found that not only do two-thirds of the nation think Bush and Cheney are too beholden to oil companies, 60 percent think the pair made the whole energy crisis up.

And why not? Energy prices are falling, both in the market and at the pump, and Alan Greenspan, in a post-rate-cut speech Thursday in Chicago, said energy-price inflation was the furthest thing from his mind.Time magazine: The GOP Try on Jimmy Carter's Sweater June 29m 2001

This is a little reminder: whatever Bush would have done would have made little difference to the lock-step liberals at Time: he would have been wrong and paralyzing his actions would've been called for.

RPC then fast-forwards to 2008:

"…I’ll remind people it took us a while to get into the energy situation we’re in and it’s going to take us a while to get out of it. But one thing is for certain here in the United States, that we can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country — something I’ve been advocating ever since I’ve been the President."--President Bush Discusses 2008 G8 Summit

Red Planet--as well as Bush--could have, at that point, yelled, "GOTCHA!" at all those who have been placing roadblocks in the way of finding and extracting energy in the U.S.

It would have felt good--but it wouldn't bring the price of gasoline down.